The Oaks Hosts Annual Table Tennis Championships
Performances from Juniors were the highlight of the night
The evening saw a number of closely contested matches. Picture: Oaks Club
July 11, 2024
This Friday (5 July) the 38th Table Tennis Championships’ Finals Night was held at The Oaks at the Actonians Sport Club on Gunnersbury Drive.
The evening was the culmination of previous rounds that had been played over the last few weeks.
The age of competitors in 14 events in the annual competition ranged from 9 to 80 but it was the Juniors who caught the attention.
In the Under 11 singles Alex Cheung overpowered the less experienced Youssef M’rabet but not without Youssef keeping Alex on the run by hitting some cracking forehand shots past him.
Team mates Dominic Cotier and Matthew Cook found themselves playing each other in no fewer than 3 singles finals. With three hard hitting, close matches, Matthew clinched the Junior Under 19 Boys Singles and the Minor Singles and Dominic the Cadet Under 15 Singles.
The Junior Girls Singles saw Jacqui Lesh’s attacking game overcome Sophia Marshall in 3 straight games but with Sophia fighting all the way through.
The Ladies Doubles event was won by Jacqui and her mother, Gill, who out played Sophia and Kitty Lo, one of our newly qualified coaches, who tried everything in their power to angle out their opponents.
The Mixed Doubles proved to be an exciting match with 11 year old Alex Cheung playing with his coach, Gill Lesh, beating experienced players Kitty Lo and Greg Paluch in a close 5 game match.
The Ladies’ Singles found Gill and Kitty playing each other once again but with Gill’s experience overcoming Kitty’s steady blocking game.
In the Men’s Singles the club’s top player, Jacek Langa, overcame local cricket legend, Luke Stoughton, in a close semi-final and then proved just too consistent for his team mate, Mario Brozko’s big forehand attack. Mario had just scraped home against the steady Stephane Vial in the other semi-final. Jacek also overcame Gill in the final of the Over 50’s event and Mario in the Veteran’s (over 40) singles.
A new event this year was the Novices Singles – an invitation event for the parents of junior members which saw Alex’s father, Keith Cheung, overpowering Youssef’s dad, Adil M’rabet. Keith’s “big” forehand drive, proved just a little too hard and consistent for Adil who put up a good fight..
The presentation of trophies was made by one of The Oaks longest serving members and Life Vice President, John Wu, who is looking forward to competing at a later date in the Drawn Doubles final which had to be postponed, along with the Men’s Doubles, due to illness.
The Oaks at Actonians is currently welcoming new members for social play, training and coaching as well as offering the opportunity to compete in two local senior leagues and the National Junior/Cadet Leagues. It currently runs sessions on Monday and Thursday evenings all year round and junior coaching sessions on Friday evenings during term time. In the Autumn it is looking to expand the number of sessions available by offering adult beginner coaching.
Anyone interested in joining should email info@the-oaks-club.net or see its website for further information.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |